Cruel Alpha

Chapter 8

Wilder was running in his wolf form. Though he enjoyed being a free spirit, he didn’t enjoy running, but a grey wolf run next to him. Lauren enjoyed running and was rather s****l afterward so Wilder joined the run, hoping to get some pleasurable compensation by the end of it. 

They circled the forest around River Banes a few times. It was way bigger than Lauren’s pack and Wilder being Alpha blood earned them certain privileges so they have moved on to hanging out and having dates in his pack area. 

They finished the run, went back to Wilder’s house, and had to sneak in a way that neither Axel and Wren would see them. Wilder hated when Axel and Wren tried to have small talk. They spent the rest of the evening in his room, Wilder only leaving few times to get their food orders and drinks. The next day they had breakfast in the clearing and after Wilder’s excited convincing, skinny-dipped. 

I could keep doing this for a while. Wilder let himself imagine doing this for a longer than while. They were currently in the Pack House, Lauren has left to get snacks, leaving Wilder to scroll on his phone on the couch in the main area. After seeing that it took a rather long time for Lauren to retrieve a bag of chips, he decided to look for her. He forgot that Lauren wasn’t from the pack and guessed that she probably got lost. 

Wilder found her in the kitchen, chatting with someone from the pack, upon seeing both of them stopped and turned to him. “I thought you got lost,” Wilder noted as he stood next to Lauren, one arm resting on her waist. Lauren chuckled. “Yeah, I did but then, Edward helped me find the kitchen. Thanks for that.” She said and reached for the cupboard. Wilder nodded towards Edward. Wilder knew him from around the pack but they have never hung out. He was one of the gym guys. River would probably know him. 

“Thanks, man,” Wilder said in a way dismissing the guy from the kitchen, he wanted to have a moment alone with Lauren to sneak her a kiss. Edward seemed too uncomfortable by the simple sight of them standing close so Wilder guessed he would faint if they kissed in front of him.  Edward looked up at Wilder, his eyes danced with sparks, he was having a moment of disagreement with his wolf. 

Wilder turned to Lauren, expecting her to have an explanation. Lauren avoided his eyes and looked at the Edward guy instead. “What’s going?” Wilder asked, turning from his girlfriend to a guy that seemed too invested in staring at her. Lauren stepped away from both of them, looking at both, but her gaze lingering longer on Wilder. “I have to go, I’ll call you.” She excused herself and rushed out, Wilde was left standing in the kitchen with a weird guy. “What the f**k?” he whispered and turned to Edward. “What did you do to her?”  He asked with a growl but then felt stupid to threaten someone twice his size. Wilder has started taking his training seriously but not that seriously. 

Edward stepped forward, hovering over Wilder even though they were of the same height. “She is my mate. Keep away from her.” Edward stepped out of the kitchen, leaving Wilder to process his words.  

Robin has just gotten back from Oak Tails. She was looking forward to a good night’s sleep and hopefully a late morning start as she was treating this as a vacation. Driving through the populated pack areas, she reached the small division on the road. Right turn lead to Higher ranked quarters. She remembered most of the Alpha quarters by heart; Wren liked to work at home more than she liked to work at the human city. Also, the celebration for Sierra and Axel forced her to stay there as she was Wilder’s mate. 

Robin liked to think of herself as an average part of the River Banes pack. But evaluating her ties with the power figures lead her to think that maybe she was closer to power than she had realized. Subconsciously, she has moved towards them and accepted them as a part of her circle. Not all of the average wolves were friends with Alpha’s family. The majority of the pack feared drifting that close to them, afraid of what a moment's anger from the Alpha family could do to them. Not Robin, though. She always stepped forward, showed her disagreement, dared the anger to come. 

A loud car’s horn disturbed Robin’s thought. She has been standing at this crossroad too long. She extended her arm out of the car, to sign sorry and took the turn left. Towards the Pack House and average wolves. Even though Oak Tails was a research project, she lived in the Beta House according to her title. Of course, Declan justified it as the actual Pack House being part of the research and not having a secure space for living. He himself lived in the Gamma House, few miles away from Robin. Why not live in Alpha House? Robin found herself wandering. There was no real pack or hierarchy left. So, why did Declan still obey the rules of untouchable Alphas? 

Robin parked the car only to be greeted by Hope and Jacob in the parking lot. Hope had a huge smile on her face as Robin exited the car, she rushed to hug her friend. Robin accepted the embrace but she sent questioning looks to Jacob who chose to stand few feet away from Robin. Jacob just shrugged and pointed to his belly, signing that it must be the pregnancy. “So, glad that you are back,” Hope said as she pulled away.

 Robin smiled and nodded. “Great to see you, but shouldn’t you be resting?” Robina sked and looked at Hope’s belly, it was slowly starting to have a round shape. Hope waved the concerns away. “Not yet, it’s too early. Besides I really, really wanted to see you today.” Hope hugged Robin once again to which she laughed. “Seems like the baby loves me already.” 

Seeing that Hope was keen on hanging out, Robin had to put her stuff back and go out, losing any opportunity of sleep or relaxation. However, she had a rather fun game night and was surprised by how much she missed the convenience of just coming and hanging at Iris’s place whenever she wanted. Oak Tails had no place for that, let alone people. Oak Tails is a work project. Robin had to keep reminding herself, she has been getting attached to it as if it was a real pack as if it was her home and she was finally going back there after all these years. 

The second day Robin was back, her sleep was ruined by a phone call, she debated whether she should pick it up or not and decided to let it ring through and try to sleep again. However, the person didn’t stop with a call and the bothering noise of messages filled the silence of the room. 

Robin growled and extended her hand from under the covers. She sat up straighter as she read the ID of the messenger. Margo. 

I got the job in New York

They want me to start next week 

Next week?  Robin replied Next week meant Margo had to leave as soon as she can. Suddenly the fact that Margo kept looking at apartments made sense. She knew that whatever job she got would be of short notice start. 

Americans. They are always in a rush

Robin chuckled at that and called up Margo. She picked up from the first ring and only after Robin realized that this was the first conversation they had since last week. First conversation since they broke up. “Congrats on the job, I knew you could do it,” Robin said in order to ease some of the silence of the call. Margo chuckled. “Thanks, I was actually starting to worry that they might decline me.” Robin shook her head. “Please, they would be losing such a candidate, you are perfect for New York and all that high-end gallery stuff.” She waved her hand around. “You would fit there perfectly too,” Margo said with a sad smile, a small glimmer of hope still remained that, maybe, Robin would leave everything and come to New York with her. 

Robin chuckled, “Don’t lie, you know how I act around new people and places.” Margo sighed, but her eyes still shone through the screen, “I am leaving tomorrow.” Robin’s eyes widened, “Already?” Margo looked down guiltily. “They sent the reply a week ago, not long after you left. I have already done everything, I just wanted to stay until you came back.” Robin nodded, still processing her words. “Why did you wait for me?” Margo chuckled. “I couldn’t leave without a proper goodbye.” Robin smiled, knowing where the conversation was going. “I suppose we could do it one last time.” She said at the same time Margo said, “Come over, Ro.”